Video Overview

Learn how to repair your Retina MacBook 2015 with this video overview.

Introduction

Apple describes its new Retina MacBook as "the future of the notebook." Its all-new design certainly has us intrigued. The whiff of aluminum in the air and the whisper of screws unwinding to reveal the mysteries within can only mean one thing: The teardown has begun. Join us as we expertly dismantle the Retina MacBook 2015.

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While we want to commend Apple for adopting the new USB Type-C standard, they've done so in a way that makes it impossible to use old adapters on new devices. The MagSafe and Thunderbolt ports of old are gone. The new MacBook has one USB-C to rule them all.

For comparison's sake:

10-watt iPad USB adapter (left)

29-watt USB-C power adapter included with the MacBook (middle)

60-watt MacBook Air Magsafe 2 (right)

This is the first MacBook in memory to ship without some form of MagSafe adapter. The breakaway nature of MagSafe made it less likely to damage ports and plugs when yanked.

Hopefully users will benefit from the standardization, and not trip over their cables too often.

Can we heap some scorn on Apple for not also including/designing in a 1A USB Type A connector on this charger block? An additional 5W wouldn't have made the guts substantially bigger, if at all. Coupled with the ridiculously short Type-C cable that they ship it with, if a road warrior wants to charge their MacBook and iPhone "on the go", they're SOL. And since the Type-C cable is so short, the charger block is likely to be ON your desk, not under it; the exact same place you'd expect an iPhone charging block. Not seeing fit to put both functions in one block speaks multitudes to me about Apple's design philosophy towards its users: greedy contempt. They are, in effect, saying "We know you're going to have to buy another, 3rd party block. Haha."

The one thing most folks are missing about this laptop - it is designed to be used on your lap! No cables, no cords, no restrictions on movement, the battery lasts all day. You use it like an iPhone or an iPad, carry it around, move it, take it here, take it there. You plug it in to charge at the end of the day.

You do not leave it on a desk. Get an iMac or MacBook Pro if you want to leave it on your desk plugged in. "Think different."

Cmon, sometimes they make stupid choices, and the reality here is that in their ecosystem those choices are forced onto their consumers because there is no "other makers" it's either use the device apple makes or move on.

That being the case then this is a bad decision. Because it creates a situation that doesn't benefit their userbase in any way. It creates a situation of dissatisfaction with their products. They are basically forcing you to buy dongles for ports that cost ridiculous amounts of money when designing in even just a usb 3 port would have cost them pennies.

I want to be able to charge the stupid thing along with my iPhone without having to carry around two power bricks. Is that so much to ask? With older MacBook models I could plug in my MacBook and plug my phone into that and they'd both charge. What is the point of having an ultra portable if you're forced to carry around a 5lb gear bag to hump all the rest of the necess-ories??

What an apple fan-boi comment. Just because you can sit it on your lap doesn’t mean that you won’t *ALSO* put it on your desk for part of the day. It never fails to amaze me how some people identify themselves so strongly with the brans they buy that they have to be unofficial spokesman and apologist. Sad.

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Those are pretty short keys. Bursting from its cocoon is Apple's newly-designed keyboard, equipped with a butterfly mechanism. Let's see if this keyboard will go twice as high as the traditional scissor-switch mechanism.

The keyboard has a "butterfly mechanism". The "twice as high" line is a reference to the Reading Rainbow theme song, which has the lyrics "Butterfly in the sky/I can go twice as high". The link is to Jimmy Fallon as Jim Morrison in The Doors, doing a parody cover of the referenced theme song.

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Reminiscent of the Macbook Pro 13" Retina released in March, this MacBook comes equipped with the fancy Force Touch trackpad. We disconnect the trackpad/keyboard cable for a little more maneuvering room.

With the springy trackpad/keyboard cable disconnected, we can fold the whole enchilada flat on the table. Time to survey the field and see what we're up against this time.

IMPORTANT: If you don’t press the yellow button before removing the trackpad cable on new models, it will KILL your Mac. This I’m reading from fellow contributors. Please tell me, I have not destroyed two MacBooks this way.

I have a base model 1.1/256GB. Seems exporting 1080p video in iMovie generates the most heat. Mine hovered between 84-87C thru the 12 minute process with a high them reading of 88.20 Cooling was immediate after export was complete. Down to 54C within 10 seconds. Intel lists the high gem for the 5Y31 at 95C

Apple is going down, I better buy a few second hand 2012 model for the future, when mine will give up, no way I'm buying an no upgradable computer! I might have to think seriously to try to make a hackintosh also!

I wonder how one would extract/recover data from a retina MacBook 2015 with a dead logic board (you know s..t happen)? On MacBook Pros/previous gen MacBooks you could simply remove the SSD and place it to another Mac or external enclosure (not to mention the older models with the usual SATA interface).

It's OK if you backup your data regularly (most users don't hence the data recovery business is flourishing) what will you do if there is no backup? Sure sometimes logic boards can be repaired, but sometimes even L. Rossmann can't fix them...

The Toshiba 128GB NAND Flash is not SLC. It is 128GB MLC NAND Flash. As the information Apple announced on the web site, MacBook uses PCIe-based SSD. There should be an PCIe-based NAND Flash controller. And, as the teardown result you did, there is an additional memory chip, SK Hynix H9TKNNN4GDMRRR-NGM. Can you recheck the chip? Is there a chip under SK Hynix H9TKNNN4GDMRRR-NGM? I guessed the PCIe-based NAND Flash controller is under SK Hynix H9TKNNN4GDMRRR-NGM which is PoP package.

It would be interesting, if the components on the whole board are something new, or can be found in similar configuration in other models on the market.

There are voices saying, that the hardware is highly overpriced. It would like to have objective comparisons or analyses, not emotion and religion-driven affects of the Apple haters and on the other hand of the fan boys.

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Four years later, it looks like they might now have something to show for it—thanks to Anandtech's report that the MacBook's SSD looked a little unusual in the system profiler, we took our heat gun to the SK Hynix SDRAM to see what was hiding underneath.

Where we expected to see something by Samsung or Toshiba, we found an unbranded chip with a very Apple-esque part number: 338S00055.

Our friends at ChipWorks took a peek, and have confirmed this is definitely an Apple custom device, fabricated at TSMC. We'll have more details soon!

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In order to power this slender gadget, Apple produced this form-fitting 7.55 V, 39.71 Wh, and 5263 mAh battery.

According to the specs, this is just a hair more than you get from this year's almost-pudgy-by-comparison, 5100 mAh MacBook Air 11"—though Apple touts equal battery performance of up to nine hours surfing the net, or ten hours of iTunes video playback.

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The treasureantennas sit in channels routed into each speaker assembly.

If this is a dielectric coating, some of Apple's recent patents could suggest that Apple is using the speaker assemblies to form a compound antenna, helping maximize power efficiency in this smaller form factor.

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Finally, we reach one of the most talked-about trackpads in town. As we could expect, the Force Touch trackpad in the Retina MacBook looks like a slimmer, daintier version of the one we found in the 13" MacBook Pro.

Once we cut away the bracket, we get a clear view of the Taptic Engine.

I'm sure the new strain gauge trackpads are more durable than the old diving board trackpads (which had a tiny dome switch + fragile plastic/rubber nub making up the physical button, mine failed there), but the strain gauges DO wear out, don't they?

Is it likely to be something that people who press hard will see failing at some point during the Macbooks lifetime?

On either side of the keyboard are phillips screws which I assumed were 000 size because that is the only screwdriver of that size that was listed in your tools needed section - I even ordered the driver from ifixit but it does not work. Can someone please tell me the correct size driver for these screws - I ordered the JIS version of the 000 today - I think that might be it. Thanks!

What mechanism controls the "spring" in the key (driving the key back up)? The hinge controls the up and down motion, but where is the spring that drives the key up? And is it easy to replace this spring portion for keys that appear slightly less responsive?

so the spacebar on my mb12 became inoperable; the 1st attempt to remove it and clean the inside yield no results (lots of gunk went out and the plastic bits holding the key to the butterfly mechanism were intact though) so i tried again and this time, applying minimal force, some of the plastic bits gave and now the key is loose and won’t stay in place much; that being said, at least i can use it when typing!

any thoughts on how to fix that? did anyone try using any form of adhesive perhaps? i don’t suppose one can simply buy the spacebar / butterfly mechanism as a replacement part? i want to avoid spending 200usd to replace an otherwise perfect and scratch free top chassis part… thanks!

@mikebpplaThe Bookyard has individual keys as well as full key replacement sets. The keys are pretty tricky to replace without damage in my experience, but definitely worth a shot before you resort to replacing the entire upper case.

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Ahh, USB-C! This lil' guy combines charging, data transfer, and video output into a single port.

We can't help but wonder why Apple chose to only include a single USB-C port. This means that if you want to charge your MacBook and use a USB device at the same time, you'll need a $69 adapter. We're all for change Apple, but come on.

Some critics have also argued that while the single USB-C port helps to maintain the MacBook's sleek profile, it could leave the new notebook open to some serious security problems.

USB-C supports a top speed of 10 Gbps (this port maxes out at 5 Gbps), bi-directional 20V/5A power, and a reversible design aimed to solve all of your USB woes.

I'd like to see a bit more contempt for Apple's decision to wedge that USB Type-C connector behind the display hinge. Looking at the design, by using the aluminum case as the connector body they clearly are -trying- to make that port robust; but in doing that they're pushing the failure point onto the plastic tongue. The amount of aluminum on the part shows they KNOW that. The design is clever, modular. But to then wedge the thing IN, that's just asinine. They're over-engineering one point in an attempt to compensate for poor design at another. Then again, can't knock 'em much more than the 1 out of 10.

Not sure what you're getting at - what would a solution be? Make the aluminum weaker? I think that the extra metal there is to keep the corner from denting during a drop. As for the "wedging the connector in" part, that's a non issue since it is probably installed before the display is attached.

@Jeffrey Daniels: By removing MagSafe, Apple is necessarily making the user accept a greater risk of breaking the Type-C connector. That the connector is modular, and designed the way it is, pretty much reflects Apple understands that. However, instead of merely making the connector modular AND easy to replace (a fast repair job), they make it a substantially longer job requiring the removal of the display (and a bunch else to get that far). The one part that carries the most risk of causing repair...they then go and make replacing it puzzlingly more difficult than the part's modularity would convey. (If you have to do that much work to get it out, why bother even making the thing compactly modular at all?)

Array of 4 Drivers for the keyboard LEDS, each supported 24 output channels. Someone's going to have to make a bit of software to led flash sequences of keys for alerting. Email from mom? M-O-M lights up, goes dark, lights up. etc. That would be awesome.

Any idea if Apple's design allow for the individual LEDs to be controlled by user programs?

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Since they use those TLC5951 LED drivers with 24 channels and that chip allows each channel to be adjustable individually, for 24 channels x 4 chips that's 96 channels total... is it possible to use them like disco lights? :D

One of the most common repairs we do in our shop is to replace the keyboard after failures. (Usually spills). It looks like this previously arduous but fairly inexpensive task will remain arduous but no longer inexpensive.

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The MacBook 2015 Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)

Proprietary pentalobe screws continue to make opening the device unnecessarily difficult, and new cable routing makes the procedure even trickier.

The USB-C port is secured by tri-wing screws, and buried under the display brackets, complicating replacement. Also, being the only port, it will experience more use and wear than a typical single-purpose port.

The battery assembly is entirely, and very solidly, glued into the lower case.

The Retina display is still a fused unit with no separate, protective glass. If the display needs replacing, it'll cost a pretty penny.

Yeah I'm thinking the same… I vaguely got the point behind the complaints when iPhone 4 came out, but that is now five years ago, and I am sure that anyone trying to fix the MacBook has ordered some part for one of the *last five iPhone models* and gotten the pentalobe screwdriver with it, so… And then the tri-wing screws just get a quick mention, although tri-wing screwdrivers are far less common by now, which just isn't fair :D

Thanks for the teardown, iFixit. Are the camera and microphone(s) unpluggable? I've been able to unplug my camera/microphones based on your teardowns of past Apple devices, but I can't tell from any of these pictures. Thanks!

It helps lot when you shown the repairing posts. I know that people can understand the problems they faced with apple products like phone, laptop etc. you given the guarantee to the people these apple products once problem gets can be replaced and repaired. Thanks for your efforts in showing interest for us.